“Did I inherit anything from my mother, like I inherited your lightning from my father?” Leon asked, any joy on his face from testing himself against the Thunderbird quickly fading away.

The Thunderbird’s reply was immediate. “I don’t believe so. I would doubt that your mother could even pass down any kind of power, especially since you have already my power. The chances of two inherited powers existing in one person are… remote, to say the least.”

Leon stared back at her, his mind filled with recollections of his vision of black fire. He had felt that something had been there, that there had been something or someone just out of his reach. Needless to say, he didn’t buy her answer.

“Are you sure that there’s nothing there?” Leon asked in a skeptical tone.

“I’m quite certain of that,” the Thunderbird replied, keeping her eyes fixed squarely on Leon.

Leon frowned, but he pushed no more. He had no solid evidence other than Xaphan’s word that he had a high affinity for fire magic and that he felt like there was something that belonged to him just outside his reach. The latter wasn’t an omnipresent feeling, and Leon hadn’t even realized he felt that way until the vision he had after the fight with Lewis. His own skill in fire magic did help his case, but that could just be a quirk of his own body rather than something he inherited.

“Very well,” Leon said, choosing to accept the Thunderbird’s disappointing answer, at least for the time being. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he at least trusted the Thunderbird to not lie to him for no reason. His vague feeling that something was missing didn’t go away, but if the Thunderbird said there was nothing there, then Leon figured it was probably best not to investigate it until he knew more about what he might be dealing with. “What’s next?”

“You have your long-term goal, to reach the Nexus and reassert our clan’s dominion over the element of lightning,” the Thunderbird said with a tone of expectation, “Right now, your next step on that road is to construct your Mind Palace. Once you do so, you will ascend to the seventh-tier and all you’ll have to do after that is expand your soul realm.”

“How do I get started?” Leon asked. “I’m not exactly keen on spending all my coin on building materials…”

“That’s not necessary, you already have all the building materials you need!” the Thunderbird replied, waving her hands around the tiny island. After Leon gave her a blank stare, she explained, “The Mists of Chaos surround every soul realm. The mists are the building blocks of everything within, you simply need to take some and use it to add to this island.”

“Oh? Is that all I have to do?” Leon asked, having no earthly idea how to seize some of those mists a half-mile distant from the edge of the island, let alone how the stuff could be used to create physical objects and building materials.

“No need for sarcasm, it’s actually not that difficult,” the Thunderbird said. “The Mists of Chaos are a part of your soul realm, and here, you are Lord and Master. You need only will the mists to gather, and they will gather. You need only direct them to solidify into physical material and solidify the mist will.”

‘You make it sound so easy…’ Leon thought to himself, but there was nothing stopping him from giving it a try, so he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. In his mind’s eye, he imagined huge clouds of mist floating closer to the island, but after that, he didn’t really know what to do.

“The mist becomes matter,” the Thunderbird whispered into his ear. “Imagine the mist congealing, condensing into dirt and stone…”

Leon did so, picturing the mist gathering and compressing into grey stone and brown dirt on the edge of the island in front of the throne, almost like a tongue or a lip. He didn’t hear or feel the wind from swirling mist, and neither did he sense any change in the magic power in the surrounding air, so he doubted it was working. However, when he opened his eyes, he saw a small cloud of mist right where he had directed it, but his surprise was so profound that he lost concentration and the mist instantly dispersed back into the surrounding clouds.

“A good start,” the Thunderbird said. “Not bad for your first try. Let’s try again.”

Leon nodded, then once more closed his eyes. He didn’t really need to do so, but it helped him concentrate on what he wanted, and what he wanted was for the island to expand. That would take time, but time was a resource that he seemed to have in abundance.

---

A week passed after Leon’s ascension to the sixth-tier. As Elise ascended to the fourth-tier at the same time, Leon spent just about every second he wasn’t in his soul realm—which honestly wasn’t that much as his focus during this week was on laying the groundwork for his Mind Palace—celebrating with Elise.

Alix even joined them for a couple of days, but with the advisory council’s recent focus on combating demonic and vampiric activity, she didn’t have much time to spare. For the most part, Minerva was keeping her busy with her own training and learning how to manage the labyrinthine Legion bureaucracy, the latter of which she had gained little to no experience in when she was squiring for Leon.

During this time, Trajan didn’t call upon Leon for anything. The Prince had enough on his plate managing August and Octavius’ now public rivalry and dealing with the newly uncovered vampiric threat, and since Leon had a tendency to upset things wherever he went whether he intended to or not, Trajan simply ordered him to stay at Elise’s estate to not complicate matters.

Leon was happy to comply, and he no longer visited the Royal Palace to check in with Trajan. After telling and encouraging Leon to stay home so many times only to have Leon continue to come to the Royal Palace to check in, Trajan finally outright ordered Leon to stay home until he was called for, even if he were to stay away for months.

And so, for a week, Leon concentrated almost all of his efforts on using the Mists of Chaos to expand the island in his soul realm so that he would have more land to build upon, as well as training with the Thunderbird in the arts of magic. When that week was over and he took a step back to survey all that he had accomplished, he found his island had increased to about a quarter of a mile in diameter. His soul realm had also expanded a bit, pushing the edge of the Mists of Chaos back by an additional several hundred feet.

“Good, plenty of space to work with,” Xaphan observed as he joined Leon in looking around at the small plain of bare dirt and stone that surrounded him. “Do you have any plans in mind for what to do with this space?”

“I’ve got a few,” Leon said with a wide smile. “Do you remember that spell you used to use the Mists of Chaos to recover some of your power?”

“You want to build a more permanent version of that?” Xaphan asked, his own smile obvious from his tone.

As Leon nodded in confirmation, he said, “If it was capable of boosting you three whole tiers, then I wonder what it might be able to do for me…”

“Don’t forget that I was recovering my own power,” Xaphan warned. “It isn’t as efficient when you’re making that journey the first time…”

“Would it help me gain enough power to expand my soul realm?” Leon inquired.

“Without a doubt, though it might require some tinkering as you don’t use fire as much as I do,” Xaphan answered.

“I still want to build something like that.”

“Very well…”

With that, Xaphan used his connection with Leon to send him the relevant information regarding that enchantment. It was an incredibly complex enchantment and its image alone gave Leon a momentary migraine.

“Ugh…” Leon moaned as he stumbled backward.

“Don’t be such a baby…” Xaphan chided.

After the pain disappeared, Leon straightened up and said, “While we’re on the topic of you teaching me stuff, why don’t you fulfill your bargain to teach me that mental communication technique?”

With a sigh as if Leon had asked him to hold up the sky, the demon said, “Fiiine.”

“From the guy you just called a baby, you’re being childish…” Leon replied.

“Yes, that was the point,” Xaphan said. “I’m glad my partner is intelligent enough to pick up on it. I almost thought it would fly right over your head.”

“So you’re not trying to get out of a promise like a whiny brat?”

“My word is my bond, boy.”

Despite what both were saying, neither of their tones were in any way hostile. In fact, they were both having quite a bit of fun poking at each other like this, but they both went silent as the Thunderbird came flying out of the mists in the distance. She came flying in without the lightning and thunder that had usually accompanied her, and when she set down at the top of the marble stairs, she did so with extreme gentleness and care.

However, when she looked around at the land that Leon had created, she said, “Are you going to stop here? Is this tiny island enough space for you to begin construction of your Mind Palace?”

“It’s enough to get started, there’s some things I need to build first before I continue,” Leon testily replied. She may have been his ancestor and the source of the power he inherited, and he did respect her for that, but he wasn’t going to take such a dismissive tone lying down. “Although I think I’m definitely going to need a lot more land later, I’m taking a break from that, at least for now.”

“No need to get touchy, kid,” the Thunderbird replied. “I’m not disappointed, but I was hoping for more. Personally, I would recommend building more land before you begin, just so that you have it when you need it.”

“Is there anything in particular I need to do from this point?” Leon asked just to be sure, but he knew that there wasn’t. “Got any training for me to do right now?”

“No,” the Thunderbird confirmed.

“Good, then I’ve just been given an enchantment to utilize all this mist around us, and I intend to build it!”

“Enchantment?” the Thunderbird asked, suddenly glaring at Xaphan. “Of what does my descendent speak?”

Hearing the Thunderbird’s tone turn dangerous, Leon froze in the middle of walking out into the middle of the plain, and Xaphan’s flames flickered in fear.

“… This…” Xaphan muttered as the enchantment appeared on the ground around him.

It took but a moment for the Thunderbird to survey it in its entirety, and she immediately said, “You won’t get much use out of that, Leon, build something else instead.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow in confusion and said, “But I can get some use out of it, though?”

“Wait until you’re stronger. As you are now, it would be incredibly dangerous for you to attempt to use the Mists of Chaos in your training. Focus on your actual Mind Palace, not on this enchantment.”

Leon frowned in disappointment, knowing how quickly the enchantment boosted Xaphan’s power and that it might be used on him to similar effect had truly excited him. But, in this matter, he deferred to the Thunderbird and set aside his plans for a permanent version of that enchantment.

“You know, I could still use it if you build it…” Xaphan mentioned, eliciting a sharp glare from the Thunderbird.

“My descendant has just completed his magic body and begun construction of his Mind Palace, but you want him to pause in that most critical of endeavors to cater to you?!”

Once more, the weight of the Thunderbird’s wrathful aura caused Xaphan’s face to hit the ground.

“Your descendant also has a name!” Leon said, not bothering too much that his demonic partner was eating dirt; he could sense that Xaphan wasn’t being seriously injured, just seriously humiliated.

“I’m fully aware of your name!” the Thunderbird replied.

“Then use it!”

“You’re hardly in a position to be ordering me around!”

Leon glared at the Thunderbird, but he didn’t continue that particular topic. Instead, he looked around the island again, with everything he’d stored within just sitting on the ground. He’d organized everything a bit so that it wasn’t strewn all over around his throne, but he still didn’t have anywhere to put it.

“I’ll build a vault first,” Leon finally said after a few long moments of silent contemplation.

“Good choice,” the Thunderbird said as she clicked her beak in appreciation. “That’s the same choice your father made, back when he first completed his magic body.”

“Oh? I thought you didn’t watch us puny mages,” Leon said.

“I have little interest in watching your daily lives, but when I only have two descendants left, then I tend to notice things like magical ascension! And now that I’m down to one, I’ll be paying much closer attention, so watch yourself, boy!”

Leon twitched a little at the Thunderbird’s refusal to say his name, but once again, he didn’t pursue it, he just filed it away for later if he ever got the opportunity to throw it back in the Thunderbird’s face.

“What was his soul realm like? My father’s, I mean,” Leon asked as he turned his gaze around at his island again, thinking about what he could do with all that space.

“Artorias built a magnificent palace, one befitting a man of his rank and ambition,” the Thunderbird said.

“Ambition?” Leon inquired.

“Indeed, he may have seemed quite humble and content to you when you were living in that forest, but I could tell how much he wanted to find your mother and gain vengeance for everything that happened afterward. You remind me of him, actually, keeping things calm and collected outside, but within you’re a raging maelstrom of hate and anger, just ready to explode at the appropriate time...”

“You know me so well, don’t you?” Leon dismissively muttered.

He was done with that conversation. He had no interest in being analyzed by the Thunderbird.

However, just as he was turning away to begin working on his storage solution, he turned back to the Thunderbird and asked, “Why did you never present yourself to my father? Really, why not?”

The Thunderbird looked around Leon’s soul realm for almost half a minute, looking everywhere but into Leon’s eyes.

“That… that was a mistake. I’ll admit it, I should have shown myself much sooner than I have. But I didn’t, and now all I have left is you.”

“We could’ve used you…” Leon stated, his tone both mournfully resigned and accusatory.

“I know…” the Thunderbird said with genuine remorse. “As the progenitor of your Bloodline, your direct ancestor, and as the King of the Heavens, I’m sorry.”

The Thunderbird said no more, pausing only to glance at Leon one last time before taking off and vanishing into the mists.